She saved the NFP in 2016, now she’s building her own party for 2029

By Celani Sikhakhane

• Thuli Nhlebela, who single-handedly kept the NFP alive in Nquthu in 2016, says her new party will skip this year’s local elections to focus on 2029.

• She left the NFP in 2023 and founded the Future Generation Congress, aiming for a national ballot seat to influence policy in Parliament.

Thuli Nhlebela made history in 2016 as the only person to keep the National Freedom Party’s election hopes alive, after the party missed its national payment deadline with the Independent Electoral Commission and was locked out of every municipality in the country, except one.

That year, administrative failures within the NFP’s central leadership meant the party couldn’t register candidates anywhere. Nhlebela personally paid the local deposit at the IEC’s Nquthu office out of her own pocket, hoping the party would repay her. Her intervention made Nquthu the only municipality in South Africa where the NFP successfully registered local council candidates that year.

Nine years on, Nhlebela has left the NFP entirely and founded a new party, the Future Generation Congress.

She told Scrolla.Africa on Thursday that her party won’t contest this year’s local government elections in November, choosing instead to focus on removing the ANC from national government in 2029.

“I decided that I won’t contest these upcoming local government elections, because they don’t have any impact on what we really want as the Future Generation Congress. Our aim is to be on the national ballot and be able to influence policies in Parliament, and remove government rules that seem to be a stumbling block to our youth,” she said.

Nhlebela said she formed Future Generation Congress with other women are worried about the future of young people in this country.

“What we want now is to see our kids away from drugs and playing a meaningful role in the development of this country. We decided that as women, let us form this party and allow the youth to lead, while we mentor them behind the scenes. We want them at the forefront for the future of this country, because we are old, we are only waiting for our turn to leave this country, nothing else,” Nhlebela said.

She said she left the NFP in 2023 to look for a new political home. She has held senior administrative roles within the party over the years, including serving as Acting Deputy Secretary-General, and her long involvement in Nquthu politics has seen her named as a respondent in municipal governance court cases in the district.

Nhlebela said she suffered a deep personal loss during that period, her husband was killed shortly before the 2016 local government elections.

Pictured above: Former NFP Nquthu leader Thulisile Nhlebela, who is skipping this year’s local government elections to focus on the 2029 general elections under her new Future Generation Congress.

Image source: Thulisile Nhlebela/ Facebook